Various OK and TX, Tornadoes, May 1935

Altus, Okla. (UP) - Floods and tornadoes struck a score of communities in Oklahoma and Texas Saturday, killing at least 12 persons and damaging property and crops to the extent of $2,500,000 or more.
In this manner the great Southwestern drouth was broken. The floods and storms followed in the wake of general rains over the area which has been beset by dust storms and drouth.
Torrents from the overflowing forks of the Red River west of here carried eight people to their deaths. One of the eight tornadoes that struck scattered Texas communities killed two people in the Weches community near Crockett, Tex.

List of Dead.
The dead and missing which are regarded as dead by rescue workers near here are:
MRS. CLAUDE GOWENS, 60.
CARL McALPINE, 40, her son-in-law.
JOY McALPINE, 10, his daughter.
and five Negroes.
The dead in the Weches community tornado:
GEORGE CRENSHAW, 70, Crockett.
and an unidentified Negro.
At Timpson, Tex., a tornado that struck late Saturday killed J. T. PHILLIPS, 69, and his wife.
Their bodies were found 100 yards from the wreckage of their home. Four others were injured.

80 Injured By Wind.
Approximately 80 persons were injured in the various tornadoes and windstorms in Texas. In the storm near Crockett 38 were hurt, nine of them critically.
Unofficial estimates of damage caused by the tornadoes in Texas was $500,000 and from floods in that state at one million dollars.
Flood damage in the western Oklahoma area was estimated at about one million dollars.
Three persons were injured seriously by a tornado that wrecked three blocks of homes at Fort Worth.

Other Twisters.
Other twisters struck Hearns, injuring a Negro critically, and Teague, where one of the injured was expected to die. Damage at Teague was estimated at one hundred thousand dollars.
Scores of farm families were marooned on top of buildings or in trees in the area west of Altus, where rainfall reached seven inches. Townsfolk in boats rescued many. There was no saving of livestock trapped in barns of in low places, however. Scores perished.

Bridges Washed Out.
Communication lines were torn down, railroad and highway bridges washed out and farm buildings wrecked.
The Altus gas system was flooded and the telephone system at Hammon was incapacitated for 12 hours by a lightning bolt.
The floods and windstorms came after more than two days of soaking rains which drenched the southwestern "dust bowl," which instead of a wind-eroded and drouth parched section became a region of brimming ponds and rushing streams.
Flood warnings were broadcast from South Central Kansas where rain had fallen steadily for nearly two days.